This article in Berkeley News is by Edward Lempinen. Here is an excerpt:

It was, on the surface, a routine political process: The U.S. House of Representatives sent a resolution to the Senate calling for establishment of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The measure was placed on the Senate calendar, came to the floor and provoked passionate debate. In the end, the vote was 54-35 in favor, with support from both Democrats and Republicans.

But in technical terms, this was not a vote on the commission itself. Republicans had launched a filibuster on the resolution, and by Senate rules, 60 votes would be needed to break its hold. And so, although the resolution won by a wide margin, it failed.

While the insurrection posed an existential threat to American democracy, Berkeley political and legal scholars say the arcane workings of the filibuster pose a threat, too, because it increasingly is being used to block majority rule. Most often, Republicans are using it to freeze movement on popular issues related to economic fairness or racial justice.

Read the full story here.